What a difference a beer makes
by ercarterfan
Summary: What happens when a friendship between to old friends starts to go south, can repairs be made and forgiveness reached? This is a carby.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: Don't own the wonderful characters from ER just borrowing them.

A/N: Please read and review let me know what you think I will get this story updated as soon as I possibly can. Enjoy.What A Difference A Beer Makes

Driving back from Oklahoma, with Abby and Maggie was where I had managed to get the courage to ask her out. Not so much a date, date, but out to a concert. Now, do not get me wrong Abby and I were friends, nothing more, nothing less. I might have, okay I would have liked to be more, but at that point it wasn't going to happen and I wanted to have her in my life as a friend rather than not have her in my life at all.

She seemed almost reluctant at first to agree to go, but after some finesse and haggling, after all, it was only a concert and really, there was nothing wrong, really with two "friends" going to see a show, she agreed to go. Little did I know that fate, karma, or divine intervention, whatever people believe in these days, was going to change our lives that night.

Now I am not the kind of person who believes that there is one perfect person out there for everyone, a soul mate per se, but I do believe in love. Yet the harder one looks for it, the harder it is to find. However, there was just something about her that drew me in. As if she was a flame and I was the proverbial moth continuously draw to it with out the fear of being burned.

And so now here my story begins:

I arrived the night of the show dressed more casually than I normally would, in jeans and a t-shirt. Really wearing anything else, I would have stuck out like a sore thumb. Abby was beautiful as always wearing and almost black sweater and jeans.

"Are you ready?" I ask giving her a soft warm smile.

"Yeah, I am." She replies as I watch her pick up her keys and we exit her apartment.

I lead her down the stairs to my jeep. The sun was just starting to set and my heart skipped a beat seeing her with the sun setting behind her. Moving around the side of the jeep, I open the door for her, yes I know that's the kind of thing that you do on a date, but what can I say I was born and raised a gentleman and that's just what you do.

Walking around to my side of the jeep, we started on our way. Tonight was not going to be anything fancy but when I heard that Kenny Chesney was coming to town, I thought that anyone who had a tour named "Guitars, tiki Bars and a whole lot of love tour" might actually be worth seeing.

There was an almost awkward silence filling the space between us, neither one of us was sure to say to the other. We worked together so that in itself should have given us something to talk about but it did not seem to. I thought about what to say but concentrated more on the road now than anything else. I found us a parking spot not far from the entrance to the concert hall and jogged around the car to let her out. Holding my arm out for her to take, we made our way inside and to our seats. The show would be starting soon.

The opening acts came out; they were good for opening acts. I actually enjoyed listening to them. I occasionally looked over at Abby as they sang. They were a band called Rascal Flatts and they sounded good, well that is at least they did to me. I was enjoying the show a lot and when Kenny Chesney came out, it seemed like every woman in there was going bonkers. The place was up on its feet and rocking along with the tunes that were being played.

That is when it all started to go downhill; it was almost as if suddenly Abby was no longer having a good time. Granted, we hadn't said much to each other since I had picked her up but I thought that was just the way that things were going to be tonight. We did not have much to talk about anymore. She was standing up next to me clapping along with the crowd dancing in the isle and smiling as he started to sing 'Keg in the closet'. When I looked over at her, again there was a beer in her hand. Now normally I would not think of that as a big deal, and who am I to talk. I mean I had my problems too, but she was a recovering alcoholic, that's what she had said to me when we talked that day in Doc Magoo's before all of this had happened. I stood there, not meaning to give her that "look" but that is what came across.

"What Carter?" I hear her ask as she leans closer to me. It was not as if anyone could talk in here during the show, the band was far too loud for me to hear much of what she was saying.

"You are drinking?" I say trying to keep anything from coming thru in the tone of my voice.

"Yeah I am so what?"

Okay that was not what I was expecting to hear from her. Then I do not think that I honestly expected her to be standing there next to me with a miller light in her hand taking a long drink from the bottle right there in front of me. "You know how I feel about that." I say realizing that probably sounded like something that would come more from a boyfriend than from a concerned friend.

"Yeah I am having a beer Carter, there's no law against that is there?" She said sarcasm dripping from her voice and I was getting a look that could have turned anyone to ashes. I know her drinking is not any of my business, but as a friend I have the right to be worried... don't I? I mull it over in my head until I convince myself I have every right. "Yeah, well, I didn't realize that you had started drinking again."

"Yeah, I have it all under control." She said swaying more to the music now.

I can see the cowboy next to her starting to take interest in her. That was the last thing that she needed, and no matter how mad I got at her, I couldn't just leave her standing there. I was not mad at her, yet, but I was definitely getting there. I had not drunk since I had gotten back from Atlanta.

"Abby, it doesn't matter if you have it under control or not." I say to her while sizing up the man next to her, I am not sure why he is making me so jealous but he is. I turn my attention back to Abby, "It really doesn't matter, drinking is drinking, why throw away what you have worked so hard to walk away from?"

"Who says that I am walking away from anything Carter?" Abby snips back at me.

"Do not get defensive with me like that." I say watching her body posture change with the tone in her voice. "I'm worried about you. You are my friend and that is what friends do, we get worried when people we care about are doing things that we know are not good for them."

"Oh, so then this is some new found way of caring for friends then? Telling them what they should or should not do?" Abby was getting even more defensive with me now.

I found myself wishing that I almost had not said anything but I had and opened one hell of an assortment of problems. "Abby, I am not telling you what to do. I am worried about you and there is a difference, there, if you do not see it then I am sorry. But you are so right, you are a big girl and can do what you want."

Was that a glare? Yes, Abby was glaring at me. I was trying to be nothing more than a concerned friend, and she was giving me the evil eye. No, that was something more than the evil eye, that was a "what the hell do you think you are doing" look that could drop a grown man to his feet.

"Carter, I'm over twenty-one and I am having a beer, a single beer while, I thought that I was, hanging out at a concert with a friend." She said pushing her finger into my chest.

"Back off Abby," I say now turning so that I was not looking at her directly, "you are right it is your life to do what you want with it."

I watched her cross her arms over her chest. She was turning her back more towards me so that I could no longer see her face, "you got that right Carter."

I threw my hands up in the air. There was no reason that I should have to put up with this, her copping an attitude with me like that for nothing more than being a concerned friend. I did not say anything more about it though I did not think that there was anything more that I could say.

The concert ended and we rode home almost in the same silence that we had left the apartment in. It was just as awkward yet now it was almost a void rather than awkwardness that we had going. I pulled up in front of her apartment. I found myself reaching for the door to get out, but as my hand touched the handle of the jeep, Abby's hand was now touching my shoulder.

"Don't bother Carter." I hear her say with an icy voice. "I can get upstairs myself and I do not need your help."

I see Abby moving now to get out of the jeep. I just look at her refraining from shaking my head, which I was so tempted to do. She was heading for trouble and I knew it, but I did not know what to do to stop her. "You do not need anyone Abby, you have proven that to yourself and I am not going to try to help someone who does not want my help. You are and always will be Abby the unbreakable, unstoppable and definitely the independent."

I watch her run from the jeep towards the apartment building. I found myself pulling away from the curb and out into the night traffic, unfortunately with one less friend in the world.


	2. Under Control

**Chapter Two: Under Control**

It has been two weeks since the concert now and Abby and I still haven't found a way to talk to her. We work together, but yet we are avoiding each other as if one of us has the plague. She has started working opposite shifts as if she couldn't stand to be in the ER at the same time that I was.

I can't believe what I've just seen. She promised me it was just one drink, that she had it under control. Well now, here she is, at the local store, buying a six pack! Abby doesn't know that I've seen her, the last thing I need her to accuse me of is stalking. But it's not like I am really stalking her I am on my way into work. The trip to the EL just happened to take me past the quick mart that she had decided to frequent on her way home that day; I have no control over that. I am more worried about her now that I had been that night of the concert.

I'm at a lost as of what to do now, she sure a hell wont listen to me, she's to damn stubborn. She wont listen to anyone, won't take anybody's advice, I guess that's what makes Abby, Abby. But I refuse to let her do this to herself, not after all the hard work she has gone through. Now she might think that I am the words largest jackass, and that might have been true, but Abby saved my life before, now it was my turn to return the favor. I couldn't let her go through the downfall to hit rock bottom before someone intervened and saved her from herself.

I hate to do what I know I have to. I have to talk to Luka about her, about the problem that is starting to resurface. But he's seeing her right now so if anyone should be the one to talk to her. She might listen to him, maybe, I guess that one can only hope; hope that it's not too late to stop. So here I am at the ER, searching for my colleague. I look towards the admit desk, and there he is. I suck back any feelings that might make my blood boil.

"Luka, you busy?" I ask, trying to keep any sign that something is wrong from my face. The last thing I need is Frank to overhear the conversation that I'm about to have with Luka. I don't like the man right now and this is going to be one of the harder conversations that I have had to have. I'm not happy with the way that things are going while she is seeing him.

"Kind of Carter, can it wait?" I was not in the mood to be toyed with. It's not that I was overly upset but more along the lines of extremely worried. She was going to crash and I couldn't let the woman that was my best friend, or had been my best friend. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't do something to help her? I would have been the worst kind of friend.

"No it can't, really this is something that just can't wait." He looks back at me, knowing now that whatever I have to say is urgent. I have gotten my point across to him and I watch him as he sets down the chart that he had been working on and I fall inline behind him as Luka starts walking to be and together we head to the lounge. I pray to god that it was empty. I didn't want anyone to over hear this; it was something that it didn't need to be getting around right now until I knew what we were dealing with. For the first time in my life, a prayer has been answered. The lounge is absolutely deserted.

"What is it Carter?" he asks and pours himself a cup of coffee, not bothering to offer to pour me one.

"Were you aware that Abby is a recovering alcoholic?" no sense in beating around the bush. It needed to be brought out into the open and I had to problem being blunt with Luka, there was no love loss between the two of us. I didn't think that we would ever be to a point where we would be anything more than working colleagues, and that was just fine with me.

"Yeah, I know a little about it." He said as if this was nothing that I should be talking about with him.

The cold reaction that I was getting from him, wasn't sitting well with me. His entire tone that he was using with me just seemed to be as if he was wanting to blow me off and not talk. As if this was none of my business and while Abby was his girlfriend, she was my friend.

"I saw her today, she was buying beer." I am rather blunt again with him. He had left me with no other alternatives.

"How do you know it wasn't for someone else," he was wanting to doubt it just as much as I was. Either that or he was being extremely protective of her. He didn't want to admit that she was drinking while she was with him. Maybe he was more into denial or thought that it was not the problem that he wanted to deal with.

"Because we went to a concert together and she was drinking a beer. When I asked her about it, she said she had it under control." I am fighting not to yell at him right now. "Buying a six pack and taking it home is not having it under control. I do not consider that under control."

"Abby is a big girl Cater, she knows what she's doing?"

"Does she? Luka, because it sure as hell didn't." Now I am livid with him, he is completely blowing me off.

"Fine, what do you want to do about it? I can guarantee you, it won't be easy. She will not accept our help." he set the coffee cup down, a sign that he was actually listening to what I had to say. But it was as if he didn't want to do anything about it. Like if he ignored it, it would go away on it's own that whatever problem was causing her to decide she needed to drink would resolve itself and she would go back to AA meeting and start over again.

"I don't know. I'm not sure what to do." I throw my hands up in frustration. Frustration that he's not taking me serious and that he doesn't seem to want to touch this either. "She's not talking to me if you haven't noticed. Abby hasn't talked to me for weeks."

"Well Carter, when you come up with a plan, let me know." with that he walked out. Was he still upset over the fact that I had taken her out while they were together? Christ it's not like I was trying to take her away from him, I took her out as a friend. The trip to Oklahoma I did because she was my friend, he didn't seem to want to go, and Abby didn't need to be taking that trip along. If he was, he needed to get his ass out of his head and help me, help one of our best friends.


End file.
